So I've got some bad news.
Came home today, saw the pleco floating at the top of the tank
Took him out right away, he must have been dead for at least 3 hours. I saw him last night still, feeding happily. I did notice he had a very fat belly, but just thought he had eaten a lot. Well, when I took him out, his belly was huge. At this point I'm thinking bloat or parasites, but leaning towards bloat. I only fed a couple small algae wafer pieces, and the snails got to that before he even had a chance. I did throw in a couple slices of zucchini about a week ago, he ate that. Just wondering why he got it. I'm going back to PetCo, getting my money back. I don't know if it was something he had from the tanks at PetCo, if he was bloated or whatever. Just makes me sad. GBR is doing fine, so I have a feeling it's not the parameters. Just in case, here they are:
NitrATE: Just under 10 ppm
NitrITE: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
pH: Pretty high, 7.6 -7.8ish
I guess it happens. He had a pretty big bioload anyway, so I guess I won't have to worry about overstocking the tank biologically when I get the ram girl.
Anyway, that's all I have to report. I've decided to take apart the moss wall, just isn't working for me. I might put it in the 5.5, but I don't want it to ruin the view. I'll check it out tomorrow.